Agronomy Trials

Usually interested in the factors of production:

When to plant? What seeding rate? Fertilizer? What kind? Irrigation? When? How much? When should we harvest?

Interactions of treatment factors

Could consider one factor at a time
Hold all other factors constant This is ok if the factors act independently

But often factors are not independent of one another

Examples:
Plant growth habit and plant density Crop maturity group and response to fertilizer or planting date Breed of animal and levels of a nutritional supplement Others?

Interactions
Consider 3 varieties at four rates of nitrogen
Yield V1 V2 V3 V1 V2 V3 20 40 60 80 No interaction 20 40 60 80 Noncrossover Interactions 20 40 60 80 Crossover Interactions Ranks of varieties depend on fertilizer level V1 V2 V3

Relative yield of varieties is the same at all fertilizer levels

Magnitude of differences among varieties depends on fertilizer level

Interactions numerical example

Effect of two levels of phosphorous and potassium on crop yield
No interaction
P0 K0 K1 Mean 10 14 12 P1 18 22 20 Mean 14 18 K0 K1 Mean

Positive interaction
P0 10 12 11 P1 18 26 22 Mean 14 19

Negative interaction
P0 K0 K1 Mean 10 16 13 P1 18 14 16 Mean 14 15

(22-14)-(18-10) = 0

(26-12)-(18-10) = +6

(14-16)-(18-10) = -10

Main effects are determined from the marginal means Simple effects refer to differences among treatment means at a single level of another factor

Factorial Experiments
If there are interactions, we should be able to measure and test them.
We cannot do this if we vary only one factor at a time

We can combine two or more factors at two or more levels of each factor
Each level of every factor occurs together with each level of every other factor Total number of treatments = the product of the levels of each factor

This has to do with the selection of treatments

Can be used in any design - CRD, RBD, Latin Square - etc. Designs generally refer to the layout of replications or blocks in an experiment a factorial refers to the treatment combinations

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages - IF the factors are independent
Results can be described in terms of the main effects Hidden replication - the other factors become replications of the main effects

Disadvantages
As the number of factors increase, the experiment becomes very large Can be difficult to interpret when there are interactions

Uses for Factorial Experiments

When you are charting new ground and you want to discover which factors are important and which are not When you want to study the relationship among a number of factors When you want to be able to make recommendations over a wide range of conditions

How to set up a Factorial Experiment

The Field Plan
Choose an appropriate experimental design Make sure treatments include combinations of all factors at all levels Set up randomization appropriate to the chosen design

Data Analysis
Construct tables of means and deviations Complete an ANOVA table Perform significance tests Compute appropriate means and standard errors Interpret the analysis and report the results

Two-Factor Experiments
Four spacings at two nitrogen levels (2x4=8 treatments) in three blocks

Block

II

III

Tables of Means
Spacing Nitrogen T11 T21 Mean B.1 T12 T22 B.2 T13 T23 B.3 T14 T24 B.4 Mean A1. A2. X..

Block

I R1

II R2

III R3

Mean X..

ANOVA for a Two-Factor Experiment (fixed model)

Source Total Block A B AB df rab-1 r-1 a-1 b-1 SS SSTot SSR SSA SSB MSR= SSR/(r-1) MSA= SSA/(a-1) MSB= SSB/(b-1) MSAB= SSAB/(a-1)(b-1) MSE= SSE/(r-1)(ab-1) F R= MSR/MSE FA= MSA/MSE F B= MSB/MSE FAB= MSAB/MSE MS F

(a-1)(b-1) SSAB

Error (r-1)(ab-1) SSE= SSTot-SSR-SSA-SSB -SSAB

Note: F tests may be different if any of the factors are random effects

Definition formulae
SSTot i j k Yijk Y
SSR ab k Y..k Y
i i..

SSA rb Y

SSB raj Y. j. Y

SSAB r j Yij. Yi.. Y. j. Y i

SStreatment = SSA + SSB + SSAB

Means and Standard Errors

A Factor B Factor Treatment (AB)

Standard Error Std Err Difference t statistic

MSE/rb 2MSE/rb

MSE/ra 2MSE/ra

MSE/r 2MSE/r

(Y1 Y2 ) / StdErrDiff

Interpretation
If the AB interaction is significant:
the main effects may have no meaning whether or not they test significant summarize in a two-way table of means for the various AB combinations

If the AB interaction is not significant:

test the independent factors for significance summarize in a one-way table of means for the significant main effects

Interactions
No interaction
Tests for main effects are meaningful because differences are constant across all levels of factor B
Main effects for varieties Avg for V1 Avg for V2

V1 V2

20 40 60 80

Interaction
Tests for main effects may be misleading. In this case the test would show no differences between varieties, when in fact their response to factor B is very different
Avg for V1 Avg for V2

V1

V2

20 40 60 80

Factor B

Example
To study the effect of row spacing and phosphate on the yield of bush beans
3 spacings: 45 cm, 90 cm, 135 cm 2 phosphate levels: 0 and 25 kg/ha
S2P1 60 S1P1 65 S3P2 66 S3P1 59 S1P2 56 S2P2 62 S1P2 45 S3P1 55 S3P2 57 S1P1 58 S2P2 50 S2P1 59 S1P1 55 S3P1 51 S1P2 43 S2P1 54 S2P2 45 S3P2 50

Tables of Means
Treatment Means
Spacing Phosphate P1 P2 S1 S2 S3 Mean 57.3 52.7

59.3 57.7 55.0 48.0 52.3 57.7

Mean

53.7 55.0 56.3

55.0

Block Means
Block Mean I II III Mean 55.0 61.3 54.0 49.7

ANOVA
Source Total Block df 17 2 SS 752.00 417.33 208.67 31.00** MS F

Spacing
Phosphate SXP

2
1 2

21.33
98.00 148.00

10.67
98.00 74.00

1.58
14.56** 11.00**

Error

10

67.33

6.73
Excel

** Significant at the 1% level. CV = 4.7% StdErr Spacing Mean = 1.059 StdErr Phosphate Mean = 0.865 StdErr Treatment (SxP) Mean = 1.498

Report of Statistical Analysis

Spacing Phosphate 45 cm 90 cm 135 cm

None
25 kg/ha

59.33
48.00

57.67
52.33

55.00
57.67

Yield response depends on whether or not phosphate was supplied If no phosphate - yield decreases as spacing increases If phosphate is added - yield increases as spacing increases Blocking was effective